Counselling for children: Working with parents

Counselling helps children understand, manage and overcome many different personal challenges. Some of the most common problems parents come to seek advice for include anxiety, anger, and difficulties with friendships.

In counselling sessions we will work on your child’s self-esteem and empowering them so they can work towards achieving their personal goals. However, often we need to work in collaboration with parents so the work we do during counselling is supported and reinforced at home.

How we work

At Melbourne Child Psychology we are a family-centred practice, which means that we work in partnership with parents and children to reach individual (child) and global (family) goals.

Instead of just telling parents what to do, we help them to make their own decisions. We believe this is a better approach for parents to develop confidence so they can make their own plans and decisions in the future.

We encourage parent’s involvement and suggestions on how to best work with their child. Based on our experience, we provide parents with strategies to help them help their child at home. We work together to adapt those strategies to the family’s specific characteristics.

Parents are also our greatest resource! All families and all children are different. By working with parents, we can get “insider” information about what strategies have been tried before, which ones have and haven’t worked in the past, and the family’s resource availability. Parents are experts in their child and family, so with their information we can learn more about the child’s (and family’s) interests and strengths to design a more effective counselling plan.

In cases where the main goal is a behavioural change, parental involvement is crucial to achieve success. For example, if in counselling we are focusing on increasing anger management, parents need to back up the work done during the counselling session. They may also need to implement a home-plan, such as the introduction of time-out and reward charts.

In some cases we can also provide strategies that can be implemented at school, so parents can pass on the information to their child’s teacher. In general, the more consistent the behaviour change plan is across settings (e.g. home, school, after-school activities), the more effective the plan will be.

If you have any questions on how we can work with you as a partnership to help your child overcome their personal challenges, please get in touch.

How can we help?

Book your initial parent consultation to get the right advice for your child's needs

Book Now »

Got any questions before you book? Click here to request a phone call and a psychologist will call you at a convenient time (prospective clients only). Please keep in mind we are often busy with clients but we do our best to respond to all enquiries within one business day. :-)

Why have 2,866* parents chosen us?

(*As of 24th July, 2019.)

  • Private and confidential: We are a private service so you will receive 100% independent and confidential advice.
  • Child and adolescent experts: We only work with school age children, teenagers and parents.
  • Education and school experts: We will help you navigate the school system to get the best possible results for your child.
  • Qualified and experienced: We only employ psychologists with a master degree or higher and experience working in schools.
  • Fast appointments: We don't keep a waiting list and see most new clients within 7 days.
  • Convenient location: We are in Middle Park with easy access from many parts of Melbourne and unrestricted street parking.
  • Trusted methods: We use approaches that are strongly supported by research evidence or clinical experience.
  • Lovely beachside office: You will love our quiet, modern and attractive office, with its beach and ocean-themed rooms.